Not saying that I agree or disagree with Drew being #1, but before Gasol even came to the Lakers, he was a major proponent as to why the Lakers turned the corner to overtake the Suns in the Pacific Division, and gain the #1 seed in the West. During the time (before he got injured), he was playing at allstar level, and it showed with the record the Lakers had. Bynum has definitely proven more than Oden, as to whether or not he should be #1, not really my call, since I'm a Laker fan and could be biased.
Howard wasn't a star when he was a rookie, which was my point. 13 and 10 and 14 and 8 are good stats, but they don't make you a star.
Ah, I see why you brought Howard up now. Thanks for clearing that up. Not many centers in the league average 14 ppg. I can nearly count them one hand. Not many average 8 rebounds either. I'd rank Bynum behind Shaq, Yao, Howard, Al Jefferson, and maybe Okur in the league's centers. That's around top 5, which = star to me. Not a superstar, but definitely a star player.
Those who don't think Bynum is an All Star talent have clearly never watched him. He's got a better offensive game than Dwight Howard at this stage in his career. Yes, I said, BETTER OFFENSIVE GAME. He actually has post moves and a solid mid-range jumper. Howard gets most all of his points off his freakish athleticism and strength. He doesn't really have a great or even a good post move. He just dunks on everyone. Bynum has greatly improved every year in the league. He's got a very good hook shot in the low post and pretty good face up jumper from 14-16 feet. He's also a very good defender and a tremendous shot blocker. He has the makings of a 20+/12+ type of a guy. And you can discount his numbers saying they're not impressive and blah blah blah, but he put 14/8 before his injury this year and 13/11 before his injury last year on a team loaded with talent. Remember, he has to share the ball with Kobe, Gasol and Odom - all of whom are going to usually get up 10+ shots per game. Plus you then have Farmar, Ariza and Sasha getting their fair share of shots off the bench, as well as Radman when he was here. Bynum putting up 14/8 on a team loaded with that much talent is awfully impressive if you ask me.
I actually think Bynum could have been an All Star both this year and last year if he didn't get injured before the ASG each year. He was putting up good enough numbers to be voted in by the coaches each time.
Shaq got in the ASG with 16/8, which isn't much better. I don't think it was too much of a long shot to say the coaches could have voted him in.
1 Chris Kaman 2 Andrew Bynum 3 Al Horford 4 Kendrick Perkins 5 Emeka Okafor 6 Brook Lopez 7 Andrew Bogut 8 Marc Gasol 9 Andris Biedrins 10 Greg Oden
I would have to disagree. Aside from Yao, Shaq was the only other center who remotely deserved an AS spot. He got in because of his numbers, not his name. Bynum was having just as good of a season and had really turned it on before he got hurt, so I don't think it's too far out of the picture to say he could have been an AS, based on the lack of quality centers in the league. You could argue for Al Jefferson...but he's a PF, he's just stuck playing out of position. His crap team wasn't helping his cause either.
How is Kendrick Perkins in the top 5? He's almost non-existent on offense and isn't even a great rebounder. I'd take Okafor, Lopez, Bogut, Biedrins over him, and maybe even Gasol.
what they really should have done was push dirk over to center and put kevin durant on the team. and al jefferson definitely deserved it more than shaq, but he got hurt before they named the teams didn't he?
I thought Jefferson got hurt after the ASG. Dirk should not have been pushed to C. He's not a C, therefore he shouldn't make the game as a C. Durant probably should have been on the team, but they have a tendency to reward those on good teams. Only 2 players in the last 10 years (that I can remember) have made the ASG on a team that wasn't in the playoff hunt, and that was Michael Finley back when Dallas was awful and Joe Johnson a few years back when Atlanta was a bottom feeder.
jefferson definitely got hurt before the allstar game. just can't remember if they had selected the reserves yet or not. and yes, dirk should have been pushed to center. get the best guys in the game. the west already had yao, duncan, and amare so it's not like having dirk make the bench as a center hurts the team somehow. and chris bosh was moved to center for the east team to make room for other more deserving guys. so obviously it happens.
Jefferson was hurt on 2/8, so I believe reserves had already been chosen. As for moving Dirk, again, I already threw my explanation out there. The coaches who choose the All Stars choose deserving players from winning teams, even if there are players on crappier teams who might be more deserving. Even if they move Dirk to C, it's more likely that someone like 'Melo would have been chosen over Durant, even though Durant was a more deserving candidate. The NBA prefers to reward winning, even when those winners aren't as deserving to be All Stars, that's just how it is. That's why the only two "losers" I can think of that have made the ASG in the last decade was Finley and Johnson.
